kids, yelling and screaming. we just wanted to try to get away as quickly as possible. >> a bad day for boston. if we pull together we'll get through it, we're a strong city, a lot of people willing to work together as we gather here today, with all our officials, let's say, boston will overcome. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports" -- terror in boston. this hour, the latest on the investigation. >> the fbi is investigating it as an act of terrorism. any times bombs are used to target innocent civilian, it's an act of terror. >> we stress that any information you may have, any videos or photographs not just at that scene, but anywhere in the immediate vicinity could be helpful to this investigation. >> everyone should expect continued heightened police presence and everyone should continue personally to be

vigilant. >> the victims, including 8-year-old martin richard. and the dozens of people undergoing repeated surgeries today. >> i think the most important thing to consider right now is that all the patients are first alive. and second, are in rather stable condition. they're quite sick, some of them. and admitted to the intensive care unit. but overall we're very pleased with the results. >> as flags at the white house are lowered to half-staff, president obama praises those who rush to aid the injured. >> you want to know who we are? what america is? we respond to evil. that's it. selflessly, compassionately. unafraid. >> good day, i'm andrea mitchell

live in washington. the fbi and intelligence agencies are involved in an intensive search for evidence and we have new details, breaking news about the explosives used in the boston bombings, joining me now, nbc news justin correspondent pete williams and michael leiter. pete, ha have you learn about the bombs themselves? >> well, what we're told by authorities, andrea, is that they're crudely made. they appear to have been assembled inside a pressure cooker. it may be some of our younger viewers don't know what that is, but in the olden days when you wanted to make something tender, you put it in this pot with a tight lid on it. and the steam wouldn't escape and you could build up pressure and things cook faster in them. the premicrowave days. inside a pot like this, a pressure cooker is assembled the device. it includes a low-power explosive. something like black or smokeless powder, gun powder, if you will. not a high explosive like dynamite or a plastic explosive

or the common tatp, which seems to be the one of voice of terrorists when they build bombs, terror bombs overseas. so it's crudely made, it's set off they believe by some kind of electronic timer. it's carried to the scene, they believe, in some kind of back pack and then just set down before the devices go off. unfortunately all bombs can be devastating when they go off. this was not one that was, in the word that seems to be the a parlance these days, sophisticated. >> michael leiter. i've spoken to people and what's the standard procedure for intelligence agencies, going back over any signals that might have been missed. tasking people with communication, in light of the fact that this is a pressure cooker, used in my childhood to

make soups and stews before crockpots, before things were done electrically, tell me what this tells you about the possibility? i know this is hard to draw inferences but these are the kinds of clues that are significant. >> the basic aspect of using a pressure cooker, frankly, i don't think it tells us all that much. that's because we've had some groups that have used this. and we've also had inspired, inspired folks use something like this. >> tapping into techniques. >> right, the times square bomber guided by the pakistani taliban used a pressure cooker, it didn't work because he used the wrong materials inside the pressure cooker. so the fact is we have a common type of explosive, one is that how to build it is readily available on the internet and elsewhere. so probably anyone can do this. in terms of the sophistication, the tool may not have been particularly sophisticated. the fact that the person was able to plant these and get them

to go off in close succession in this crowded area, it shows some ability. i think it's still too earl will i to say. it was a group, an individual, how they might have been motivated, where they came from. but the fact that they're not using sophisticated explosive tools does probably, it should give us a bit, a very, very small bit of comfort. >> pete i know you've got to get back to your ongoing reporting. let's talk for a moment about the need to be patient here. from our experience, yours and mine and the investigators in past past terror attacks here in the united states, it can take months, years or never to find out who the perpetrators are. >> that's right. when you have a situation like this where unless they get some other piece of information like a witness or someone who was aware of these things being prepared. or suggestive travel or intelligence, or something like that. if you're just basing it on

what's on the ground. it does take a long time. it can take a long time it took years to catch the unabomber. it took well over a year to find eric rudolph, the bomber in the olympic park bombing in atlanta in 1996 and the abortion clinic bombings that followed on from that. so, yes, these things can take a long time. they can also, you can also get a break and find a fingerprint on one of these bomb parts and be off to the races much faster. >> so it wouldn't be surprising if this thing takes weeks, that would be unsurprising in the bombing investigation. where your primary piece of evidence was literally blown to bits. >> michael, another question about your experience within the administration, several administrations what is the pressure level on intelligence experts, you've got a lot of -- understandable motivation, political with a small "p" to

get answers to the american people. >> it's a professional obligation to get the answers to the white house. i would guarantee you very few people, the fbi and the white house and the cia and elsewhere, have gotten any sleep. something like this happens, it is constant high-level meetings. every little bit of information that comes out, that leads to another string of investigative, investigative steps. for example, pete mentioned that these were likely contained in backpacks, that's incredibly valuable. because now as the fbi is collecting data from cell phone photographs and videos, people know let's start looking for backpacks that people might be carrying that might be same color of the backpacks that contained the bombs. everything comes up. lots of steps on the investigative front that immediately gets right back to the white house. so incredible pressure on the white house and elsewhere. >> i know there was they were

considering reports that all the shrapnel came from inside the bomb, came from the metal, the explosive effects from buildings. i heard one surgeon today at mass general say he believed from his surgeries, the head of the trauma unit that it was shrapnel from the bomb itself. and that they were turning pieces of evidence from the o.r. from the investigators over to the fbi. that's important stuff. >> absolutely. every individual they'll be treated to get the medical care they need. they'll be federal officers or local police officers there in the hospital, collecting all of this data. as a doctor noted, many of these fragments were consistent in size, that will be critical for the investigators to understand if it was actually fragments put in the bombs or damaged caused to the buildings and windows and things like that. >> michael leiter, thank you very much. joining us with the latest

information from boston, msnbc's chris jansing and nbc's ron allen from mass general. chris, first to you, the latest on the scene. you've talked to so many witnesses, so many people. you know the community, tell us how things have evolved the day after. >> just a few blocks from what is an active crime scene. and to pick up on what michael lighter just talked about. one of the things we heard was a call from the folks around the finish line to send in their photos, send in their videos and they acknowledge there could be not just thousands, but maybe tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of them. they're particularly interested, obviously, in those that were taken during the blast. right before and right after. and they said, do not hesitate to send them to us. we promise we will follow up on them. it is going to be extremely difficult. you can just imagine with potentially tens or hundreds of thousands of photos, like looking for a needle in a haystack. what officials are saying is you

don't know as a citizen, what might be important and we're going to look for it. we're going to find it. part of what is being called the most complex investigation that's ever happened here in boston. trying to find the person or persons who perpetrated this horrific crime. we learned this morning that 176 people were taken to area hospitals, 17 of them critical. of course the three fatalities, only one of them has been identified. a little 8-year-old, who was called a great kid, his name is martin richard. part of a large and loving family. his family was there watching his dad run the marathon. his mother last night had brain surgery. her situation is very critical. so is his sister's, her leg was blown off in the blast. so just one story of one family, and the horror that happened to them. i also want to tell you that the crime scene is coming down a little bit. they've shrunk it from 15 blocks

to 12 blocks as they look for information. a lot of businesses are shut down. a lot of people here still who had come from almost 100 different countries to run the marathon and the conversations you hear around town, andrea, today is of course where were you, how close were you to the time of the blast. i heard someone this morning saying she had crossed the finish line just moments ago and wondered what might have happened if she hadn't pushed herself in those final few miles, conversations we're hearing over and over again. andrea? >> chris jansing thank you so much. and chris, you just referenced this. let me read a statement just released from bill richard, the father of martin richard. he has written, my dear son martin has died from injuries sustained in the attack on boston. my wife and daughter are both recovering from serious injuries, we thank our family and friends, those who know and those we've never met for their thoughts and prayers. i ask that you continue to pray for my family as we remember martin. we also ask for your patience and for privacy as we work to

simultaneously grieve and recover. thank you. with that statement, we go to ron allen outside mass general, ron, this is obviously the most tragic of many tragedies, an 8-year-old child this family with the wife, the mother and daughter, also grievously injured. there's so many more in the hospital behind you as trauma surgeons are desperately trying to bring people back to recovery and many people with amputations and lower-leg injuries. ron? >> indeed, andrea. and the young boy killed is from dorchester, which as you know is a typical middle class, working class, hard-working neighborhood here in boston. that death is going to echo throughout the entire community. it's going to tear at everyone's heartstrings, because it is the family seems, we don't know a lot about them. knowing the neighborhood they're from, it could be so many other people from this great city. the family was probably like so

many other who is went down, patriots day, the kids have the day off they're there to see the boston marathon. maybe they took in the red sox game at 11:00 in the morning before that. just so quintessential boston. and so heartbreaking and there are two other young children who are still in critical condition. a 9-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy at children's hospital here in boston. both of them have severe leggies are, amputations, perhaps, we're not sure. there are a total of 17 people in critical condition. the eight year we ask the doctors, what's the prognosis, and they said, probably okay, they didn't say they were out of the woods or anything like that. they're very cautious while trying to be, and being as optimistic as possible. still very, very somewhat tense, serious situation here. you can see behind me, there are police officer who is are stopping every car that arrives here at mass general hospital. it's the same situation at hospitals around town. and other sensitive buildings here in boston. perhaps a metaphor for the fact

that is a continuing tragedy with 17 people in critical condition. the death toll could increase, there's been no indication of that just yet. the doctors being very cautious as they say that the people in critical condition are going to be probably okay. that's all they could say. andrea? >> ron allen, thank you so much. among the runners yesterday was gabriel gomez, a former navy s.e.a.l. and a harvard mba one of the republicans running for the nomination to compete for john kerry's senate seat in the special election. he crossed the finish line just before the blast and gabriel gomez joins me now from boston. first of all, thankfully you are all right physically. but tell me what you experienced as you crossed the finish line and then heard the blast? >> sure. yeah. first you know, my family and my thoughts and prayers are with martin's family. with families of the two people

killed, and with 176 people that were seriously injured in the hospital. two blocks before the finish line. my wife and kids were there. my youngest is an 8-year-old son. and i went over there and greeted them, gave them the hugs and kisses and i finished the finish line, minutes before the explosions went off. i was about a block and a half away. i heard the explosion, i saw the smoke. i heard the explosion, my first innistinct was to try to get ho of my wife and kids to make sure they were fine. we were supposed to meet up right afterwards. it took about 30 minutes to get ahold of them. you know my emotions were boiling over. it went from sorrow to grief to quite honestly, anger. i mean this is pure evil. what kind of person would you know, set a bomb you know, next to civilians, to try to kill, maim and dismember. you know i've seen some pretty bad stuff in the military, but this is beyond the pale. it was an mazing to see the

first responders that responded immediately. i saw the police officers get on the horn right away and get people there i heard about the nurses that crossed the finish line, turned around right away, went back and started offering support. started giving blood. i know this is obviously the most horrific event we've had in boston. but we also saw the best in boston yesterday. >> i know you've suspended your campaign, obviously, but take me back again to those first moments. you had not yet been reunited with your wife and children. what did you do when you heard the blast? you clearly knew that this was, this was something that was terrorism. >> i was about a block and a half away. i heard the blast, i saw the smoke right away. i could tell it was coming from where the finish line was. i had just seen my wife and four kids minutes before and obviously the first instinct was trying to get ahold of them. cell phones were down, you

couldn't text, it took 30 minutes to figure out my wife and kids were fine. the first reaction was to get ahold of them and try to figure out what was going on and quite naturally try to see what i could do. i was just unbelievably heartened to see the first responders were right there right away. the security detail and the police officers were doing everything they possibly could to respond. and you saw the best of boston yesterday. this was a horrific event. only going to make the city stronger. >> as a former navy s.e.a.l., fighter pilot, a combat veteran, you have have training, the best training. but you were also responding as a civilian and as a parent and husband. what about all the people you saw around you and how they responded? and what does this mean for civilians for all of us at these large events? >> this was supposed to be most amazing day of the year for boston. 117th straight boston marathon,

hundreds of thousands of people having a great day. it's the last thing that you think about when you take a left on boylston and come across the finish line. the first responders and the police detail and security detail could not have done a better job. from what i saw. and what i continue to see today. and the investigation. these people will be found, they will get caught and they will pay the punishment that is due to them. but yesterday, you saw the best of boston after you saw the worst of what could happen in boston. and you could not have had a better reaction to what happened yesterday seconds after the explosions went off. >> as the mayor of your great city of boston said, boaststoni are tough, they pull together. this is clear to the whole country. our thoughts are with you, good luck to you and your family, i know there's a lot of psychological healing that has toe take place such as a trauma like this.

and we do have a little bit of good news to share. members of the newtown community who ran in monday's marathon, there were there for the last mile. say all are safe and uninjured. the newtown strong runners finished the race before the explosions. they were running the 26 miles in tribute to the 26 victims at sandy hook elementary school. and the last mile was supposed to be in their honor. gives you k on all purchases, plus a 50% annual bonus. and everyone but her... no. no! no. ...likes 50% more cash. but i don't give up easy... do you want 50% more cash? yes! yes?! ♪ [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on every purchase, plus a 50% annual bonus on the cash you earn. it's the card for people who like more cash. ♪ what's in your wallet? why? and we've hit the why phase...

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i called the mayor to tell him that new york city would do everything possible to support boston now and in the days ahead. we do know that this was an act of terror. and that terrorism remains a serious threat in our country. and that's especially true here in new york city. >> mike bloomberg of course,

voicing support for the people of boston. while telling new yorkers that the city's law enforcement remains vigilant. you saw police commissioner kelly right behind him. vigilance after the bombings. new york congressman peter king serves on both the house homeland security and intelligence committees. he joins me now. we've been here before in other instances, this is in some ways as bad as it can get when you see a marathon being run in the city of boston on patriots day, a school holiday. and there you have terror. what more do we know, our own, our own team led by pete williams is reporting now. that they were backpacks and pressure cookers. two bombs made in pressure cookers. what if anything does that tell you. >> i have heard that as well. i've heard it secondhand from people who are familiar with the investigation. i do know that i, my understanding is that those pressure cooker type bombs were

described in "inspire" magazine several years ago, the magazine of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. that's the extent of what i know about pressure cooker bombs. that's the one where they were telling americans to how to make bombs against their own country and the magazine did call for attacks on iconic athletic events. >> i've checked with the official sources i have, we don't know what it is, who, whether a single suspect or a group, foreign or domestic, intelligence communities now, going back over any information to see whether any incoming in the last weeks or months, even had any hints of this. and tasking bureaus around the world. since we don't know that. ha do you think we need to do in terms of homeland security at these events, you've got baseball games, you've got all sorts of other athletic events coming up today, tomorrow,

around the country. >> well, andrea, obviously there's always certain ways that security can be stepped up at an event. the fact is that if someone is a terrorist, they can construct a bomb and put it together. if they can carry it that far, chances are they're going to make it to the event. that's why the intelligence is so important. to be aggressive, to be out front. why it's important to people if they see something, say something. for instance, merchants if they're selling any components that can be used for a bomb. everywhere from ball bearings to beauty products, they can all be used to make bombs. they should notify the police, the police as commissioner kelly does with new york, were out in the community. monitoring what's happening. i know they've been criticized for it that's how you can head off this type of -- hopefully head off this type of attack. so i would say you're promised a certain tightening of security. the main thing is to get more intelligence and that's what has to be done. >> are you satisfied so far with first response and what the federal government is doing, the fbi as the lead agency?

>> i certainlial. the boston police department is an outstanding police department, the fbi, homeland security, atf, they're all working on this, the president is leading this. this is not a time for democrats or republican politics, the president is putting in place, putting in motion the counterterrorism and the anti-terrorism units we have in our country that have been developed over the last 11 1/2 years and they're going to do an outstanding job. >> congressman briefly, do you think that this will lead to more cameras? i know it's controversial, there are privacy issues, boston does have a lot of cameras, europe cities led by london have the most. are americans going to have to get used to more surveillance on a daily basis? >> i think we do. privacy involves being in a private location. anyone can look at you, can see you, can watch what you're doing. a camera just makes it more sophisticated. it's no different from your neighbor look out the window at you or a police officer walking down the street. so i do think we need more

cameras, we have to stay ahead of the terrorists and i know in new york, the lower manhattan security industry, based on that outstanding results from that. i do favor more cameras they're a great law enforcement method and device. and again, it keeps us ahead of the terrorists. who are constantly trying to kill us. i hope that members of congress, both parties including my own will realize that the war against terrorists are not over. and it's foolhardy to make cuts in homeland securities. especially whose cities, whose police departments need this. >> this poignant message for all of us, this photo was taken outside the dorchester home of 8-year-old martin richard who as we know died yesterday while watching the marathon with his family. his mother and sister still seriously injured. we've all had those moments.

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this is a here we now our neighbors and we grieve for them. we grieve for the little boy who we knew from dorchester. bad day for boston, but i think if we pull together, we'll get through it. >> boston's mayor, thomas mannino, speaking of his city's resilience and speaking with me now is massachusetts congressman richard neal. thank you for being with us on a horrific day for your community. tell us what do you know, what briefings are you getting about what happened? we've been told by our own pete williams that we're talking about two bombs, pressure cookers, loaded with some sort of material in backpacks. >> well actually the news accounts over the last 24 hours have gotten much better as you know. i think that the fbi and the boston police department and the state police have done a good job of sorting some of the early

data and getting the information out to the public. i thought the governor's position was very helpful. >> what are you hearing from the white house? what help are you getting from them? >> well, you note that the president in his press conference or at least his remarks, indicated for the first time that it was an act of terror. i think that given the aftermath of the richard jewel situation back in atlanta. that the white house was cautionary, but declaring this is an ak of terror it means it was undertaken in a sophisticated manner. let me say that the place where these two bombs exploded near the lennox hotel, behind the boston public library, on boylston street, it is the apex of where everybody gathers at the end of the marathon. people who come out of fen way park. they head to the end of the marathon. that's where people are cheered on. whoever did this, with two bombs almost simultaneously going off, they knew precisely what they

were doing. >> you're not hearing anything to indicate whether we're talking about foreign or domest snik. >> that's not come up, andrea, as far as the dialogue has gone. >> what more do the people of boston and the people of massachusetts need in terms of homeland security help, federal aid, medical help, post-trauma help? >> well i think there are a number of things here as we reach out to those families with grief. also to be reminded of the role that the boston hospitals play. they're the best arguably in the world. i think that the fbi, the boston police department and the state police have certainly done a terrific job. i also think it reminds all of us the need to be vigilant. constantly. we are in a representative democracy very vulnerable. it's difficult for us to change our lifestyles, to stay away from public places and yesterday in america there was no more of a public place than right outside of the lennox hotel. >> congressman neal, thank you very much.

this is a another point to remind everyone that they want your video, they want your tells. and those are very important pieces of evidence that could help. you don't know what could be important, so get that information into your local officials, congressman, thank you very much. thank you, andrea. from new york to boston. a sign of solidarity. messages of support lighting up the side of the brooklyn academy of music overnight. the artwork from the new york city light brigade and the artists, including messages of peace and love and the martin luther king jr. quotation, darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. hoo-hoo. hoo-hoo...hoo-hoo. hoo-hoo hoo. sir... i'll get it together i promise... heeheehee. jimmy: ronny, how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico? ronny:i'd say happier than the pillsbury doughboy

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tom busey is the president of the "u.s.a. today" sports media group. he ran the marathon yesterday. he finished only minutes before the bombs detonated. susan davis is the chief congressional correspondent for "u.s.a. today." both are joining us from boston. thank you very much. tom, as someone who ran the

marathon, tell me about the day. tell me what you went through and what you saw. >> well the day was a spectacular day. the weather was much like the weather we're having here now. and there was just a great day. the city of boston really came out as it does every year for a great race. the amount of selflessness going on was great. runners are running for causes as i was. and you know, i was coming around a corner towards the finish line and i just thinking about how fantastic everything was and then went through the finish line in about three minutes after i was through. i was walking through the corrals where they give out middals and food and drinks to the people who had run and the bombs went off. and pretty immediately it went from this just euphoric experience to a real fear-based experience. for all of us runners are in a daze after they finish and all of us were looking to be helped and told where to go. the boston police department and the ems and the volunteers were

just fantastic. they took over the situation immediately and got us all to safety. >> i know a little bit about what it feels like. one of these runs quite a while ago. you're dehydrated. you're in a daze. you're getting a kevlar wrap or getting water as fast as you can. so where did you go? what did you do? >> well the officers started to whisk us away from the danger and towards the other end of boylston street so we walked down towards boston common in a brisk manner. as soon as we got out into the public. we were dispersed. it felt great to be away from where the harm was, but a little lost, frankly. a little disengaged and not really knowing what to do. i went directly to my hotel and which is not far, thankfully and spent some time watching the news and getting updated on what had happened. >> susan davis, you were there as a spectator with family, with friends. tell me where you were and what you saw. >> i had actually watched part

of the marathon in the morning. had gone to the red sox game, they play every monday morning on patriots day. just gotten out of the game and went back to watch some of the finishers around 2:00. i was on my way to the airport when a police officer walked by and said there had been a couple of explosions by the finish line. and i knew that we didn't have any reporters on the ground here. so we turned around. got as close as we could. never actually saw the site of the blast. butdy get near the medical tent where they were performing triage on a lot of the victims and had a chance to talk with eye witness who is were there. it was a pretty horrific and gruesome conversation with a lot of them. one of the things that has become very apparent here yesterday and certainly today. is a sense of community here. how much people have helped each other. i saw people coming out of their homes and offering runners food and drink as you said. you've run a marathon, there's a lot of people in shorts and tank top who is couldn't get back to their hotels who are very cold. people offering them places to stay, places to sleep. so there's been a tremendous

amount of kindness in the streets of boston. behind us, they started a makeshift memorial where people have dropped flowers at the edge of the security perimeter. i spent a lot of the morning talking to boston marathoners, in the streets of boston they're wearing their colors of yellow and blue today proudly. loosely-coordinated effort to show pride for the race and almost every one i talked to said not only would they run again, but they plan to do it next year. >> and it's been reported the new york marathon will run in the fall. they're going do run that, that is like the boston, not as old as the boston marathon. but it's iconic and you've got millions of people who turn out along the way. not only at the finish line. tom you're the head of the sports group in "u.s.a. today." susan was at fenway yesterday. as were so many bostonians. what about athletic events in our country?

how are we going to protect -- in a stadium, you can do magnetoto meters. >> you can only hope it doesn't diswade people from participating. sports it at its best when we're doing things like marathons, when people are out here participating and competing with causes in mind. you hope that this doesn't, doesn't take away from that. what do sports do? sports is one big event after another. and for those of us who attend most of them, it's really challenging. it's becoming concerning about bringing your families to those events. but americans are resilient. you know, i think as susan said, the selflessness is what struck me over the last couple of days. it starts with the runners who are selfless just by doing what they do for these causes. secondly, it was selflessness of the volunteers. he was watching volunteers jump over fences into the area where the bombs had gone off. without any concern for themselves. it will be on display again i

suspect in november in new york and at next year's boston marathon. >> tom and susan davis from "u.s.a. today," as you point out, in the last 24 hours, we've seen the worst and we've seen the best of america. thank you. thanks for being with us. we'll be right back. ♪ constipated? yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps.

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the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. only half a block away from the blast yesterday. he experienced yesterday just having run the marathon. was this your first boston marathon? >> actually i did not run marathon. i was taking photos of the marathon. i was shooting the marathon for -- >> sorry. >> shooting some runners.

>> i was about, sorry, continue? >> tell me what you saw. >> i was about half a block away when it happened. and i was just entering a rest rauth when it happened. and the first bomb had gone off and i didn't even know what had happened. what it was. what was going on. but everyone around mere, including myself got extremely still. and i could see outside. the whole restaurant had windows, and everyone outside had stopped mofgs, turned around, was looking in any direction to see what it was. until the second bomb went off. when the second one went off, at that point still people didn't know what was happening, whether it was a bomb or what it was. but it was something bad. i ran out immediately, and i could see smoke down one of the streets. and then next thing you know, people are crying and screaming and just running in any direction. thousands and thousands and

thousands of people are running in any direction they could. just, just to get away from what they, what they saw. >> so what did you do next? >> i, i immediately left the restaurant. headed to the hotel which is where i was saying. right next to the medical tent. i went actually to try to go get my camera. to go up there and come back down to see what i could do, take some photos, but the security was super tight. as i was going back to the fairmont, you could see, it was right next to that. you could see what was happening. you could see people bleeding from their head, running, i think a lot of the people didn't even know they were bleeding, they were just running out of pure shock and fear. it was very, very intense. >> we're glad you're out of it. obviously all of those injuries. we now know that more than 170

people were injured. thank you very much for being with us. we'll be right back.

held on patriots day each year, the boston marathon has become part of the state holiday that begins with the red sox game at fenway. joining me now, "boston globe" columnist, kevin cullen. you've written about this today, about what this mean for bostonians, for the people of massachusetts to have the marathon hit by terrorists. >> yeah. it was striking because if you saw the, some of the footage my colleague at the globe, still took some remarkable footage of the bombings. when that first bomb went off, you saw the first responders jump over, they pulled the barriers apart. they pulled all those flags down. because i mean, boston is an international city but the most international day in this town is marathon day. people come from all over the

world. those flags were thrown into the street, as i described them. they looked like victims themselves, splayed on the street. i think it was a powerful piece of symbolism. whoever did this didn't attack the boston marathon. they didn't attack boston. they attacked all those countries. they attacked all of us. >> and another thing that you wrote today in your column in the globe, you wrote, it would be wrong and a cliche to say we lost our innocence on monday as a plume of white smoke drifted high above boylston street as blood pooled on the sidewalk from the boston library as several limbs lay areplied the bruise asked the bloodied and the stunned. their ears bleeding. we will get through this but we will never be the same. that is part of this evocative, emotional beautifully written column that captures your community. >> i didn't mean to imply that we would be cowed. we will not be the same the way

new yorkers were never the same after 9/11. and we lost a lot of people on 9/11. the two planes that crashed into the towers took off from here. i knew a number of people on those planes. we will not be the same. but i'll tell you one thing. we will not be cowed. whoever did this, i'm sure they considered it an act of war. and i wonder if they have children of their own, someday if their child looks up to them to say what did you do during the war, that person is honest, they'll say i killed an 8-year-old boy. his name was martin richard. that's what did i during the war. >> we have a picture from the ap that was released by martin richard's father who released a statement. we've seen him now at an ice hockey game, we've seen him in his communion suit. the heart breaking loss of this child with his mother and sister grievously wounded. what that family is suffering symbolizing what the city suffers. as you point out, resilient, yes. combative and tough.

but also hearts are broken. >> they are -- they are an exemplary family. they're a classic boston family and they're very involved in their community and very loved in their community. and you know, last night people gathered at a restaurant in dorchester to remember martin and to celebrate the richard family. they're class all the way. >> the terrorist or terrorists knew what they were doing. because as other guests have described, from usa today, people pour out after going to fenway on patriots day and go to the finish line. they go to the restaurants and the bars to cheer on the runners and to take part in the finish of the marathon. so in hitting 15 seconds apart, two bombs, they knew they would get the maximum number of people at that location. >> absolutely. this was about as cynical as anybody could do it. and it was. the four-hour mark, that's where

the majority of runners obviously, the elite runners finished much earlier. these were the ordinary mom and pop and people who train on weekends and try to keep their jobs. that's sort of the spirit of the boston marathon. the average plodder. that is who was coming over the finish line at that time themselves wanted to kill as many people as possible. that's the kind of people they are. >> we know the kind of people bostonians are. thank you for joining us. thank you for your column and your reporting. that does it for us. for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> thank you very much. coming up in our next hour, we've got new developments in the boston terror attack. we're learning more about how the explosives were made and what was used to conceal the two placed along that marathon route. i'll be joined by tom cost tello, pete williams and a number of experts. we'll play back the president's remarks a few hours ago. plus, we'll be joined by a father at the marathon honoring his son who was killed in iraq

and why this photo of him has captured the hearts of so many. all coming up next. [ chainsaw buzzing ] humans. sometimes, life trips us up.

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